Aay!
by Ceu Praca
Summary: I got this idea for a cute oneshot after drawing a picture of Arcilla and Dark together; if you haven't read my story "The Smallest Light" yet, then this oneshot will probably make no sense to you whatsoever. This takes place about a month after TSL; Arcilla is about as big as a large draft horse at this time. Wow, it's been a long time since I've written any stories rated "K!"
1. Playing

**A/N:** Don't read this unless you've read all of _The Smallest Light_. I got this idea for a cute oneshot after drawing a picture of Dark and Arcilla; chronologically, this takes place about a month after _TSL_. There will be a link to the picture in the beginning of my profile as soon as I get it posted on _deviantART_. The story title will continue to make no sense whatsoever until you actually read this.

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"Darrrrr?"

"What could you _possibly_ need from me now?" Dark growled, looking up from the map he was studying and glaring at the large, sinuous dragon, who immediately dropped into a playful crouch. "I already fed you!"

"Aay?" Arcilla chirped expectantly.

"No. Go away; I'm busy."

"Darrrrrrrrr…" the drake whined, pawing at the man's boot.

The 'retired' warrior stared at Arcilla in frustration, setting his map to the side and reaching out to lightly stroke the baby dragon's nose. "You're annoying, you know that?"

"Dar!" Arcilla yipped happily, pouncing.

Dark let out an uncharacteristic yelp at the weight of the horse-sized dragon abruptly slamming into him, a single, massive paw pinning him to the dusty ground. He sighed, too winded to even bother _trying_ to teleport away. "'Cilla…"

Arcilla lifted his upper lip to bare his long, serrated fangs in a smile, tail lashing with excitement. "Darr! Aay!"

"No, I _don't_ want to play!" Dark hissed, struggling in a futile attempt to free himself from the beast's claws. "Get off!"

The baby dragon purred, licking his face affectionately, much to the warrior's chagrin. "Aay!"

"You're more irritating than Link," he muttered, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the freezing slobber. "Mariel told us _both_ to behave while she's gone today, remember? Now get off!"

Arcilla's blue and black eyes narrowed, and he gave a low rumble of protest, flopping down to lay flat on top of the man; Dark realized that it was quickly becoming harder to breathe because of the beast's enormous weight, and quickly attempted to warp away, but the dragon simply recaptured him every time he reappeared.

"Aay!" he crooned joyfully, seeing Dark's escape attempts as a fun game.

"I think I liked you better when you were only as big as a cat," the man groaned, making another unsuccessful attempt to remove the large paws from around him. "Fine! I'll play with you! Just let go of me!"

Arcilla immediately stepped off of him, cooing, and crouched again, his long tail flicking back and forth in anticipation, ears perked up as he watched his 'father' slowly get to his feet. "Aaat aay?"

"Hide and seek?" Dark suggested hopefully. Arcilla hissed, laying his ears back, and Dark sighed, shaking his head. "Too smart to be fooled by _that_ trick anymore, huh? Well, what do you want to play?"

"Aag!" Arcilla chirped, leaping at Dark without warning; the warrior immediately dove to the side, aggravated, and grabbed the dragon's tail as it whipped past him, intending to simply halt the beast's charge.

Of course, he forgot that water drakes had _prehensile_ tails, never mind the fact that his 'opponent' was many times bigger than him, and soon found himself wrapped up, Arcilla giving him a toothy grin and licking his hair, causing it to spike up on one side.

"Okay, now that's just not fair," he grumbled, frowning at the gray-scaled infant. "New game: why don't we see who can stay asleep the longest?"

"Aay!" The highly competitive drake, not realizing that it was just another trick, immediately dropped him and curled up, rumbling defiantly; Dark grinned, sitting down and closing his eyes, intending to wait until Arcilla was assuredly sleeping before returning to his map.

After ten seconds of silence, Arcilla abruptly growled and grabbed Dark in one paw, figuring it out. The warrior rolled his eyes, melting into his shadow form to slip neatly out of the dragon's grasp and rematerialized on Arcilla's back, laying flat on him with his arms around the long, thick neck, knowing that it was the one spot that the infant couldn't reach.

The drake snorted, blinking rapidly, then curled up and closed his eyes again, deciding that Dark had won…for the time being, at least. The warrior, in turn, was realizing that he'd be dragon food if he tried getting down, so he just lay there, figuring that, while he was stuck there, he may as well take a nap. He could worry about avoiding Arcilla's games later.

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Hours later, as the sun began to sink over the horizon, Mariel said goodbye to Link and entered the ancient village, stopping short when she caught sight of the dragon sleeping soundly in the middle of the road…with her husband draped over his back like a piece of laundry. She went nearer cautiously, wary of awakening either of them; she knew that Arcilla could be quite irritable if woken suddenly.

She studied Dark silently; he looked genuinely peaceful, a slight smile on his lips, but his clothes were dusty, his hair was so spiky and stiff that it looked frozen, and there were faint scratch marks on his arms.

"Playing with 'Cilla again, were you?" she murmured knowingly; this wasn't the first time she'd come home to find them in this state. For all he pretended to complain about the dragon's roughhousing, she knew that he had an inseparable friendship with the beast.

"He's more evil than me," Dark mumbled sleepily, one eye cracking open to look at her.

"Oh, I doubt that," she answered with a grin, ruffling his hair playfully; sure enough, it was encrusted with dragon-spit. "I think he's pretty much your equal."


	2. NOTE

_**Hello there, friends. I normally don't do this, using a chapter as an author's note, but I figured that this would be the best way to reach you all, considering how many of you seem to only review as a "Guest," and therefore rendering it impossible for me to respond to you. **_

_**My old computer was destroyed a while back, and I only just recently got a new one. Getting back to where I left off is next to impossible because I have been gone from my writings for a long time, and I'm finding it difficult to reintegrate myself into my stories. **_

_**That, and as I'm reading over all of my works, I find myself being increasingly annoyed at some of the stories; many of them have things left out that should have been included, or have grammatical errors, etc. For instance, Dragon Sword is actually missing a few chapters, and is lacking an explanation for Tempest and why he acts so strangely, in addition to a few other missing details. That, and I kept forgetting to include Navi in the story, and I really need to fix that. I don't care how annoying she is, she is a central character in Ocarina of Time.**_

_**Guide of Darkness also needs to be reworked, and The Smallest Light, like above, is missing a few scenes and needs some more detail and reworking. Many of the stories in the Redemption Series(and I'm sorta embarrassed to admit this) are actually first drafts. Oh, and the Dragon Series was renamed to the Redemption Series.**_

_**Metroid: Recondite is also a bit too fast-paced and jumbled; things need to be described clearer, events need to transpire slower, etc.**_

_**A lot of my Person of Interest oneshots need to be reworked to include more realism.**_

_**Due to these problems, I will be reworking ALL of my stories, whether they be for Metroid, the Legend of Zelda, or Person of Interest. I will be going over them chapter-by-chapter, starting at the beginning, to fix errors, update continuity, and add/remove stuff. **_

_**Because of this, it may take quite a while for any "new" chapters to be published until I have completely overhauled the chapters that already exist. I'm sorry that this is happening, but I feel that it is the only way I will ever be able to get back to writing regularly.**_

_**If it's any consolation, this means that you'll be able to read all-new chapters and content!**_


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